The Ministry of Education alongside the American Embassy will be organizing new English programs for 1st grade and 7th year throughout the year.
With the aid of the American Embassy, the students will take their English to the A2 level, which is enough to interact and talk about the country and other countries with English speaking visitors.
As for High School students, they are supposed to get a B2 proficiency level, which is the level required for High School teachers as well.
That was what Ana Isabel Campos, MPE advisor and coordinator of this English program, explained to the portal.
She also stated that this program is necessary owing to the low level of English of many high school teachers by 2008, which stopped them from teaching more complex topics to the students.
A group of high school students sat for the TOEIC test and obtained A1, which is really low.
Additionally to this, the former school programs had not been modified for 15 years, it means, they were outdated as to be implemented in order to get more bilingual people in the country.
‘It is a competence-based program that is designed to International standards. The student should understand his role in the society changes, he is now an important social agent’ – Ana Campos says.
The students will be performing role-plays in the room, and by the end of the school year, they will be introduced to somebody unknown, maybe a tourist to interact with them.
The will also participate in the creation of boards, games, and videos in the second language.
‘In the grades, we want A1 for first graders and A2 for sixth graders. In secondary school we need B1 and in the bilingual schools, B2 is required. An individual with a B2 in English is an independent user with a great capacity to go about more complex situations’ – Ana Campos explains.
Lissete Torres, English teacher at Buenaventura Corrales School said the new program was excellent and that it is necessary that teachers motivate the students.
‘It is important that students learn English as efficiently as possible. In my case, we’ve started to play with puppets, play bingo, and sing songs related to the school curriculum’ – Lissete Torres remarked.
